I'm the Detroit bureau chief for Forbes, which means I spend most of my time covering the automotive industry. But I also keep an eye on the rest of America's heartland—where stuff is manufactured and grown. I've been on the auto beat for more than 20 years at Forbes, Business Week and the Detroit Free Press. At the Boston Globe, I rode the tech bubble for a while, but I found there's nothing quite as fun as the auto beat. Whether you drive a car or not, everyone has an opinion about cars or car companies. What's yours?

11/28/2011 @ 4:39PM4,544 views

GM Moves Quickly To Put Out Chevy Volt Firestorm

As I’ve watched the auto industry’s move toward electrified vehicles, I’ve had one nagging worry: what if there’s a battery fire in one of these incredibly high-tech vehicles? One catastrophic event could set the entire industry back 10 years if the public loses faith in carmakers’ ability to design a safe electric vehicle.

I always figured that if one of these advanced lithium-ion battery packs did catch fire, it would be in a car built by an obscure start-up company that pushed to bring its EV to market before it was ready, and without fully understanding the challenges inherent in automotive design and engineering. The last vehicle I expected to have a problem was the Chevrolet Volt, given the exhaustive testingGeneral Motors did on the car’s battery pack prior to its launch in November 2010.

But that’s exactly what has happened. Last Friday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it has begun a preliminary evaluation of Chevy Volt battery assemblies to assess the risk of fire in the event of a severe crash.

On Monday, General Motors stressed that the Volt is safe, earning a five-star government crash test rating and a Top Safety Pick designation from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Nonetheless, in an effort to reassure customers, GM said it would provide free loaner vehicles to any Volt owners who have concerns about the safety of their vehicles. “Our customers’ peace of mind is the most important thing. This technology should inspire confidence and pride, not raise any concern or doubt,” said Mark Reuss, president of GM’s North American operations, in a conference call with reporters.

The incident that initially sparked NHTSA’s probe occurred about six months ago, when a heavily damaged Volt used in a government crash test caught fire three weeks after the test. Since then, GM has been working closely with NHTSA, the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense to recreate the accident conditions in the laboratory to try to assess the cause and implications of the fire. The tests were meant to replicate what would happen to the battery during a severe side collision and rollover. A week after one of those lab tests, a Volt battery caught fire. Another battery started smoking and sparking when it was rotated within a few hours of the lab test.

NHTSA said it is not aware of any real-world crashes that resulted in battery-related fires in the Volt, or any other electric vehicle, for that matter. But the fact that the batteries caught fire in tests designed to simulate real-world crashes was enough to trigger its investigation. Chevy Volt owners whose vehicles have not been in a serious crash don’t need to be concerned, the agency said.

My first thought was, “Hadn’t GM anticipated this scenario in its rigorous battery testing before the launch of the Volt?” Mary Barra, GM’s product development chief, said the fire three weeks after the NHTSA crash test was an eye-opener to everyone about the importance of draining the energy out of an EV battery that is heavily damaged. “When electrical energy is left in a battery after a severe crash it can be similar to leaving gasoline in a leaking fuel tank after severe damage. It’s important to drain the energy from the battery after a crash that compromises the battery’s integrity – or you risk potential fire.”

GM said it developed a process last July to drain the battery of a damaged Volt — akin to hooking up a giant light bulb to suck out the energy — and that it is working to share the process and the needed equipment with repair shops, tow truck operators and others who handle or store vehicles after a severe crash. For now, GM engineers are being dispatched to handle the depowering process within a day or so of a crash.

But what about the risk in the immediate aftermath of an accident? Should crash victims or first responders, like police or fire personnel, be worried about a battery fire? I, for one, wasn’t terribly convinced by this comment from Barra: “A post-crash Volt should not initially be at risk from this condition, as the potential for an electrical fire from this condition should not exist until days after a severe crash.” Really? How does anyone know that?

Of course, battery safety isn’t just a Volt issue. The entire industry is working hard to ensure that the advanced lithium-ion batteries used in electric cars, and the electronics that control them, are safe. So I guess, in a way, it’s fortunate that this incident involves GM, which is currently leading a research project with the Society of Automotive Engineers and other carmakers to address new issues involving EVs such as how and when to drain the car’s batteries.

Still, all this publicity can’t be good for sales of the Volt, or any plug-in car with lithium-ion batteries. “Consumers may now have even more questions about electric vehicles and simply go back to the familiar, despite the fact that gasoline-powered vehicles have their risks too,” said Edmunds.com chief executive Jeremy Anwyl. (You should always get your car checked out after a crash, he notes.) Besides, there are plenty of less expensive cars you can buy that get 30 or even 40 miles per gallon.

More evidence that we are a long way off from mainstream acceptance of electric vehicles.

Post Your Comment

Post Your Reply

Forbes writers have the ability to call out member comments they find particularly interesting. Called-out comments are highlighted across the Forbes network. You'll be notified if your comment is called out.

Comments

We should expect that fires may occur after a crash. This is nothing new: there are over 350,000 vehicle fires annually in regular vehicles, and fuel ignition accounts for around 30% of those fires. Source: usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/statistics/v2i4-508.pdf

The fact that the Volt’s battery, when damaged severely, can lead to an ignition, is no surprise. Any power source in any car needs to be drained after a crash.

The very fact that the fire in the Volt occurred quite some time after the damage is a huge advantage over traditional gas-powered vehicles. The same source cited above notes that fires following a vehicle collision are the most common source of collision related deaths. So a delayed fire potential is wonderful. It gives first responders a chance to get in, get people out, AND drain the power source before it potentially leads to a fire.

You’re probably right. I do think, however, that people are still wary of EV technology and especially when they see how much extra a plug-in car costs. I would guess that this will give people pause before plunking down $40,000 for a Volt.

Based on the facts mentioned in my prior post, certainly it would be good for people to realize that driving any car — whether gas powered or electric — may result in a crash, which may result in a car fire.

Before spending $40,000 on something, at the very least consider whether it stands up well to crash testing. As you correctly noted in your article, the Volt did indeed show in crash testing that it does protect its occupants very well.

After an accident, if you can get out of the car safely, it is probably not good to chill out in the car. It might catch on fire.

Now we know that electric cars are not necessarily immune to this flaw of all gasoline-powered cars.

Here is a little something to think about: A certain percentage of Lithium Ion batteries were notorious for exploding. Even those little cell phone batteries can create a hell of a fire. A lot of problems with the batteries have been addressed over time, but vehicles colliding at high speeds create their own problems for the batteries.

Vehicle manufacturers have developed all sorts of defenses against the ignition of fuel during and after a collision. The development of such defenses for battery powered vehicles is just beginning. I’ll wait.

GM

And you think its okay for the owners of these cars to surround themselves with the stuff.

1.Electric cars s/b able to charge with house current.. 2.ALL electric cars s/b under 20k.. 3.ALL electric cars should go 300miles without charge 4.Recharging can take placce via solar or Alternator/Generator on WHEELS or driven by motor when running.

Seems to me in reading these comments that there is confusion in the discussion between the real source and severity of the problems with lithium ion batteries and the public perception of those problems.

Since it is apparent that the real source and severity of the problems is unknown as yet, it seems to me to be a waste of time to think about public perception. For now, let all the efforts be focused on the real until we do know what if anything is wrong and what the cure is. Then, and only then, should the public perception be dealt with.

The nuclear industry in this country was killed by bad handling of the Three Mile Island incident. The truth is that the problem originated in overregulation by the government, causing badly outdated designs to be used in the plant, instead of the state of the art technology, which, if it had been used, would surely have solved the problem (at least, that is obvious to me).

Instead of dealing with public fear head on and proceeding to implement the needed corrections in nuclear power plant controls, the government pandered to the publics uninformed fears and piled on more regulation to the point that no more nuclear plants were built. Construction on the last plant built, the River Bend plant in Louisiana, was begun in 1977, two years before the Three Mile Island accident.

So, how about letting the free market, unencumbered by an invalid and uninformed public perception, determine the fate of the electric car. If we do this the same as was done with the nuclear industry, are we not crazy? (Crazy: Doing the same thing over and over, yet expecting different results.)